Transnational Families
(Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997; Parrenas
KRISTY Y. SHIH
Central Michigan University, USA
Transnational families are families whose
members are separated physically between
two or more nation-states but maintain close
ties and relationships (Schmalzbauer 2004).
Transnational family patterns and living
arrangements are not a new phenomenon,
but this family arrangement has attracted
heightened scholarly attention since the
1990s. Transnational families face many of
the same challenges as immigrant families but
also unique difficulties. Both immigrant and
transnational families must learn to adapt to
the new culture, learn a new language, locate
suitable and affordable housing, seek employ-
ment, and adjust to the educational and
social systems in the host country. However,
transnational families must also cope with
family separation and associated difficulties.
Transnational family arrangements are
diverse. Families have various reasons for
migration: some families engage in transna-
tional arrangements voluntarily (e.g., those
involved in educational or labor migration),
while others are involuntarily separated by
wars and/or factors beyond their control.
Transnational arrangements also take a mul-
titude of forms: migrant mothers, migrant
fathers, the children and families left behind,
and children as migrants.
TRANSNATIONAL PARENTS (AND THE
CHILDREN THEY LEAVE BEHIND)
The most fruitful research effort has been
in the area of transnational mothers who
leave their own children and family behind
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies, First Edition. Edited by Constance L. Shehan.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs177
to engage in paid work in other countries
2001; Dreby 2010). In order to provide eco-
nomically and materially for their families
and children, many transnational mothers
have to endure painful and lengthy separa-
tion from their children as it is difficult for
them to make frequent visits because of the
high cost of traveling, obstacles to taking
time off, and fear of losing steady jobs. They
struggle with leaving their children in the
care of female relatives, usually grandmothers
and aunts, while they are hired to care for
their employer’s children. These mothers
often draw on the notion “I’m here, but I’m
there” to illustrate the ambivalent feeling
many of them experience; namely, having
to be physically absent but wanting to be
mentally or spiritually present in the lives of
their children (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila
1997). This ambivalence not only speaks to
the experiences of transnational mothers but
can also be applied to anyone who is ever a
part of a transnational family.
As opposed to challenging traditional
gender norms, transnational family arrange-
ments reflect, reproduce, and exacerbate
traditional gender expectations where moth-
erhood is constructed around caregiving
responsibilities and fatherhood around eco-
nomic provision (Dreby 2010; Parrenas
2001; 2005). Transnational mothers often
encounter criticism from others in the larger
society or in their own families for not ful-
filling their mothering roles. Some women
internalize the blame and guilt and do not
consider themselves to be “good mothers.”
When describing their situations, many
transnational mothers focus on the material
gains and their ability to provide for their fam-
ily rather than on the emotional costs such

2 T R A N SNATIONAL FA M I L I E S
transnational arrangements exact. Latina and
Filipina transnational mothers transform the
meanings of motherhood to accommodate
temporal and spatial separation from their
children and family (Hondagneu-Sotelo and
Avila 1997; Parrenas 2001). They reject the
deep-seated and widely held ideal that biolog-
ical mothers should raise their own children,
and instead replace it with a new definition
of motherhood. Even though transnational
mothers are not able to attend to the day-to-
day care of their children, they nevertheless
are involved in their children’s lives. They dis-
tinguish their version of motherhood from
estrangement or abandonment. For them,
physical absence does not signify emotional
or spiritual absence from their children.
They often keep in close contact with their
children through daily exchange of email
and text messages and through phone calls,
letters, and photos. Transnational mothers
engage in emotional work with and financial
compensation for their children’s caregivers
to maintain a smooth relationship. They
also worry about their children’s physical
and emotional well-being in their absence,
keeping in mind questions regarding whether
their children are being neglected or abused,
whether they have proper nourishment,
and whether they have enough educational
support and moral guidance.
To lessen their self-guilt and justify long-
term physical separation from their children,
some women engage in strategies that allow
them to incorporate breadwinning as a
component to expand their definition and
construction of motherhood across national
borders. These mothers interweave bread-
winning and motherhood as they do not see
these activities as occupying two separate
spheres. Further, some mothers believe that
by leaving their children behind they are able
to shield them from the discrimination they
may have to endure in their adopted country.
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Research on transnational fathers is
limited. The most important finding is
that migrant fathers are not subjected to the
same set of societal gender expectations that
are placed on migrant mothers (Dreby 2010;
Parrenas 2005). Migrant fathers, like most
other men, are expected to be the primary
economic providers in their families. They
are not expected to care for their children’s
daily physical and emotional needs, nor do
they bear the moral burden of leaving their
children behind. Although both mothers and
fathers migrate to meet the financial needs of
their family, they are perceived differently by
others in their communities. Whereas moth-
ers’ labor migration is often criticized, fathers’
labor migration is celebrated as it fulfills their
provider obligation. Available findings sug-
gest migrant fathers’ behaviors are contingent
upon those of the mothers. For example,
migrant fathers take a more active role in
child care and relationship maintenance only
when migrant mothers no longer take on such
responsibilities because of divorce, repart-
nering, forming another family, or lessening
contact with their children (Dreby 2010).
A handful of studies have focused on the
children who are left behind in the home
countries. In studying Mexican transna-
tional families, Dreby (2010) finds children
left behind by migrant parents may be the
most disadvantaged of all those involved
in such arrangements. Children are pro-
foundly affected by and vulnerable to the
absence of their parents, especially the long-
term emotional consequences of separation.
However, contrary to portrayals of children
as powerless and lacking agency, Dreby
finds children in migrant families ultimately
shape the subsequent migration decisions
of their parents through their emotional
expressions and their ability to affect the
adults around them. Children’s age is an
important factor in how they react to their
parents’ migration and shape their family’s

future migration patterns (Dreby 2010).
Preadolescent children generally do not dis-
play overt distress with their parents being
away but engage in various ways of emotional
withholding as a response to their parents’
absences (e.g., naming of local caregivers
in Mexico as “mama,” indifference toward
parents, disregard for parents’ authority, and
reluctance to migrate). Adolescent children
express more outward resentment toward
and conflict with their migrant parents. They
are also more likely to exhibit behavioral diffi-
culties (e.g., acting out) and to underperform
in school.
Children who are left behind also exert
power through manipulating the various
expectations they have of their parents. They
develop gendered care and role expectations
that are consistent with larger societal beliefs:
expecting their migrant fathers to provide
economically and their migrant mothers to
provide emotionally and physically (Dreby
2010; Parrenas 2005). Such expectations make
it difficult for migrant mothers to be able to
fulfill their parenting obligations from afar,
which creates a disproportionate moral bur-
den for migrant mothers for being away from
their children. This gendered expectation
also contributes to some fathers’ reluctance
to cross gender boundaries to provide care for
their children, even when they are present.
Children express emotional closeness with
migrant mothers through regular phone calls
and text messages but articulate emotional
ambivalence and discomfort toward their
migrant fathers. In addition, these children
convey different emotional reactions depend-
ing on which parents migrated. Children
complain of abandonment in migrant mother
families but not in migrant father families
(Parrenas 2005). Children’s emotional man-
ifestations could further add to migrant
mothers’ feelings of guilt and self-blame.
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T R A N SNATIONAL FA M I L I E S 3
TRANSNATIONAL CHILDHOOD AND
EDUCATIONAL MIGRATION
“Parachute kids” are minor-aged children
(between ages 8 and 17) who are sent by their
parents to pursue educational opportunities
in countries such as Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, and the United States from Asian
countries, particularly Hong Kong, Korea,
Taiwan, and more recently China. “Parachute
children” live on their own or with relatives,
host families, or guardians while their parents
continue to work and reside in their home
countries. Parents of parachute kids visit
when they can, with some making annual
or biannual visits. The parachute kids phe-
nomenon emerged in the 1980s and peaked
in the mid-to-late 1990s. Parachute kids are
a unique group; they differ from children
who grow up in immigrant families as well as
adult international students. Major reasons
for “parachuting” include wanting children
to obtain a western education (which acts
as a status symbol for the family), political
uncertainty in the country of origin, and
avoiding compulsory military service for
boys. However, we know little about this pop-
ulation with regard to their experiences, their
goals and aspirations, and the effect of the
“parachuting” experience on their identities
as adults. Scholarship on parachute kids is
limited and has been identified as a major
gap in the literature on transnational families.
The available research tends to be descriptive
in nature (Zhou 1998), with a few studies that
focus on the development of ethnic identity,
the power of children in shaping family
migration (Orellana et al. 2001), migration
and education (Zhou 1998; Waters 2005), and
psychosocial adjustment issues (Lin 1998).
This phenomenon has attracted some media
attention in Canada and the United States.
Media portrayals tend to be monolithic and
focus on the negative aspect of this pop-
ulation, such as gang involvement. Other

4 T R A N SNATIONAL FA M I L I E S
reports have focused on the high academic
achievement of this group while overlooking
some of their struggles and issues, such as
loneliness and depression.
A related phenomenon is Chinese and Tai-
wanese “astronaut” families or Korean gireogi
gah-jok (goose) families. Unlike parachute
kids, who live alone in their host countries,
astronaut or goose family arrangements
consist of one parent (usually the mother)
migrating with the children and the main
provider parent (usually the father) staying
in the country of origin to generate and
remit earnings to support the family in the
new country. In contrast to the men and
women who migrate to work in low-skilled
manual labor jobs, earners in astronaut/goose
households tend to occupy high-level or pro-
fessional positions. The primary reason for
this family arrangement, like that of parachute
kids, is the educational opportunities afforded
to children in the host countries (Waters 2002;
Chee 2005; Huang and Yeoh 2005; Jeong, You,
and Kwon 2013). To these parents, having a
western education is a status symbol that will
allow greater social class mobility for their
children and families. These families view
their transnational status as the best way to
maximize their income and accumulate capi-
tal (Ong 1999; Waters 2005). This family form
creates an arrangement where the spouses
are living apart from each other. Living in
transnational families is not easy for the
women; many express loneliness and depres-
sive thoughts while others worry their hus-
bands may be involved in extramarital affairs
in their absence (Waters 2002; Chee 2005).
Many of these women find themselves having
to prioritize motherhood over wifehood and
selfhood as they have to sacrifice their own
career, personal aspirations, and family life.
However, these women find ways, such as
engagement in social or leisure activities and
the development of new social networks, to
adapt to residing in a new country and coping
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with physical separation from their husbands.
As these studies illustrate, family members
experience transnationalism in very different
ways that sometimes cause conflict (Waters
2002; Dreby and Adkins 2010).
TRANSNATIONAL INTIMACY
Transnational romance and relationships
comprise another aspect of research on
transnational families. One form of transna-
tional intimacy includes the phenomenon
of transpacific marriages in which highly
educated Asian women marry across the
globe to overseas Asian men from their
home countries (Thai 2008). Young Viet-
namese women faced a severe deficit of male
partners during the 1970s and 1980s due
to population growth, war, and excess male
migration. On the other end of the dias-
pora, overseas Vietnamese men have faced
an even greater shortage of marriageable
Vietnamese women during the 1980s and
1990s. These trends, known as the “double
marriage squeeze,” have made it difficult for
highly educated middle-class Vietnamese
women and overseas working-class Viet-
namese American men to find appropriate
spouses in their respective local marriage
markets. Most of these men and women are
also reluctant to challenge the traditional
marriage gradient norm that suggests that
women should “marry up” and men “marry
down” in terms of age, education, and social
class. On a global stage, however, marriage
gradient norms no longer seem to be highly
emphasized and are even being reversed. A
man from a first-world country, even if he
earns a low wage, has the “up” in the marriage
gradient as compared to middle-class women
from a third-world country (e.g., Vietnam).
This first-world and third-world distinction
reiterates the popular notion that everything
in the first-world country is better than that
at home. In addition, it seems that having

a family member in a first-world country
symbolizes status and power for the family.
Many in third-world countries may even-
tually internalize the notion that the west is
better and aspire to be part of it one day. For
example, some highly educated middle-class
women in Vietnam believe that overseas men
living in a first-world country will respect
women more than men in Vietnam without
recognizing that these overseas men may
desire a more traditional Vietnamese wife
(Thai 2008). This glorification of the west
may contribute to the clash of dreams that
both Asian women and Asian immigrant
men experience in their relationships. On
the one hand, highly educated Asian women
desire a more gender-egalitarian relationship
in which they are seen as equals to their
husbands. However, such desires may not be
reciprocated by immigrant husbands who
desire a more traditional gender relationship
at home.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Future studies on transnational families
should consider using comparative and mul-
tisited research designs. Scholars have called
attention to a transnational methodological
framework that addresses the “intersection of
those who have migrated and those who have
stayed in place” (Levitt and Glick Schiller
2004). Scholars who study transnational
dynamics within families should examine
not only the standpoint of the migrant but
also the experiences of those who have
remained in or returned to their homeland.
For example, to highlight differential expe-
riences, scholars who study the parachute
kids or astronaut/goose family phenomena
could consider examining more than just the
children who migrate for educational rea-
sons, including those family members who
stay in the homeland. Multisited research
“follows the people” as they move across
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T R A N SNATIONAL FA M I L I E S 5
borders and nation-states and also examines
their connections to multiple actors in mul-
tiple locations (Dreby 2010). As our world
becomes increasingly globalized, it is impor-
tant for scholars and practitioners to be
responsive to the dynamic and fluid nature
of transnational family arrangements as well
as individual and family movement and
change over time (Carling, Menjivar, and
Schmalzbauer 2012).
Most studies on transnational families have
focused on only one generation. A cross-
generational comparative analysis could
contribute significantly to our knowledge of
transnational families. By comparing family
narratives across generations in a paired
sample (such as parachute kids and their
parents), research will be able to address how
individuals of different generations under-
stand their transnational experiences and
articulate generational differences, and how
power dynamics operate within transnational
families. Scholars should explore how the
experiences of transnational migration affect
later life family relationships, particularly
elder care and intergenerational support.
Research should also explore respondents’
use of “emotions, ideologies, and cultural
codes” (Carling, Menjivar, and Schmalzbauer
2012). Most studies on transnational families
demonstrate great emotional nuances, such
as feelings of shame, guilt, desire, ambiva-
lence, and loneliness. However, these critical
aspects of the migration experience have
seldom been theorized.
Empirically, research on transnational
fatherhood and transnational childhood
deserves much more scholarly attention. We
know much about the experiences and hard-
ships of transnational migrant mothers but
have very little knowledge of transnational
fathers or their experiences and relation-
ships. Transnational fatherhood, whether in
migrant fathers or astronaut/goose fathers,
constitutes an important part of the puzzle

6 T R A N SNATIONAL FA M I L I E S
and is critical to our understanding of the
complexity of gender relations in transna-
tional parenting.
Scholarly inquiry on transnational chil-
dren is also largely absent, both for children
who are left behind and children who migrate
for educational purposes. Future research
efforts should focus on the role of children
in transnational families and their agency
in their own and/or their family’s migratory
processes. Studies could explore how chil-
dren discuss their experiences growing up
in a foreign or home country without their
parents, how transnational living arrange-
ments affect their understandings of family
and their relationships with their parents and
other family members, and how they nego-
tiate gender and racial/ethnic identities in a
transnational context. Finally, studies should
also examine the psychosocial development
and adjustment of transnational children.
SEE ALSO: Children in Families; Gender;
Globalization and Families; Hong Kong,
Families in; Immigrant Families in the United
States; Migrant Worker Families; Migration
and Families; Transnational Motherhood
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